Vegan Apple Cake!

   
Have lots off apples? Apples are finally coming back into season and we found ourselves with a whole lot of them.
 
I made a cake for a community event using some of the granny smiths, and several people asked if the recipe was up on the blog.

Well, it WASN'T, but now it is!

Vegan Apple Cake

Ingredients:
 
2 T. ground flaxseed + 1/4 cup boiling water (or 1 egg if you don't need it to be vegan)
1/4 cup oil
1 c. soy milk or orange juice or water + 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2  c. flour (I used whole spelt flour. wheat flour - white or whole - works fine)
2/3 c. sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1.5 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 granny smith apples, cored and diced (peeling optional)

Directions:

Mix 2 T. ground flasxeed with the boiling water, allow to cool for 10 min.
Add oil, sugar, cinnamon, and your choice of liquid. mix well.
Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix well - you'll need a mixer or a whisk.
Fold in apples.
Fill 2 loaf pans and bake at 180 C (about 350 F) for about 50 min. Check with a toothpick to be sure it's done.

Allow to cool before cutting.

It was a big hit in my house! Please be sure to tell me what you think if you try it!

(Sorry no pics - will try to get one up here next time!)

Apple Crisp (vegan, pareve, wheat-free)

Apple crisp is a favorite of ours! At times, we serve it as dessert, and at times, as a decadent Shabbat side dish.

Here's what I do:


 8-10 apples, chopped coarsely (I don't bother to peel them, but you are welcome to if you prefer that!)

2/3 cup flour - I use oat flour or rice flour

1/3 cup sugar

4-6 tablespoons oil (you can use the amount you want, it's really flexible

ground cinnamon

Place chopped apples in a baking pan (I use a large lasagna size pan), and sprinkle cinnamon on top.

Combine flour, sugar, and oil in a bowl and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Spread the flour mixture over the top of the apples.

Bake, uncovered, at 180C for about 45 min.

Enjoy! (It goes really well with vanilla ice cream, dairy or non-dairy!)

Peanut Butter Brownies and Butternut Squash and Apple Bake

Right now, it's late Thursday night and I'm calling it a night. The house smells so heavenly though. I started cooking for Shabbat, and only got as far as rice pilaf, butternut squash and apple bake, and peanut butter brownies...

I've never made those last 2 things quite this way before, but if they taste as good as they smell, then these recipes are KEEPERS! I will have to report back...

Are you making anything new or different for Shabbat?

Getting Ready for Rosh Hashana!

Right now, I'm a little apple-obsessed.

First, I made apple kugel. I make a really simple version: First, thinly slice 6 good-size apples (I used a mix of green and red, and sliced them very thinly in the food processor). I sprinkled lemon juice over the apples, my attempt at stopping the inevitable oxidation. Pile them into a large baking pan. Then I pour the following batter over the top of the apples - 1 c. whole wheat flour, 1/2 c. oil, 1/2 c. sugar, and 3-4 T. ground flaxseed steeped in 1 c. of very hot water.

Bake at 350 F for about 1 hour.

Then I made apple crisp. Four of them. One got eaten tonight, so 3 are in the freezer for use as needed. I still have another 15 or so apples, so I'll probably make something else appley tomorrow. I am torn between more apple crisp and apple bread...

I've only sort of planned my menus. Here's a list of foods I am making, and we'll construct meals out of it. About half of our meals will be pareve or dairy.

Pareve Foods

Honey Challah

apples and honey (we'll offer 3 kinds of apples)

Chinese-style mushroom soup (this is a slightly complicated recipe, but a favorite. Saute white parts of 6-12 scallions, 4 cloves of garlic, and some finely diced ginger in olive oil. when lightly browned, add sliced mushrooms and reduce. Add teriyaki sauce, rice vinegar, and some white wine (if desired) - sorry I just guess the quantities - and simmer for at least 10 min. Add soup stock (I use vegetable stock) and bring to a boil. Then add black pepper and chopped scallion greens to taste.)

Butternut Squash soup (I think I blogged this recipe a few weeks ago)

Potato Kugel

Apple Kugel

Carrot Kugel

Israeli salad, Cut Vegetables

Roasted Ratatouille


Rice

Tofu (marinated in soy sauce, and stir fried)

Chick peas sauteed with other vegetables (peppers, onions, garlic, potatoes, with ground black pepper, salt, cinnamon, and ginger) 

Some sort of red lentil dish

Meat Foods

Pomegranate Chicken

Baked Breaded Chicken (served with a honey/ginger dipping sauce)

Dairy Foods

Broccoli Puff (Broccoli and Cheese Casserole)

Spinach Quiche (with Feta cheese if I remember to get some)

Lasagna


Pasta with Cheese (SOME of my children are picky and won't eat lasagna...)

Phew! I think that's enough!

Oh, Desserts:

Apple Crisp


Honey Cake


Chocolate Chip Squares


Banana Chocolate Chip Cake


Fresh Fruit
 

Monday Night

Aside from the frugal aspect, I'm looking for easy meals. We usually have busy days, and since I homeschool my 4 kids, I really don't have much downtime...ever.

For Monday evening, I'm looking to incorporate leftovers into the plan (I've been trying harder not to have to throw those out. If you have tips to make sure that leftovers get used up, please share! My kids sometimes groan when they see a food served "AGAIN".).

I just took stock of the fridge, and while most of our Shabbat food actually got eaten (and the leftover barley went into the freezer), we have plenty of vegetable noodle soup left!

(By the way, I'm really big on soup right now. It's winter, and we live in a "warm" location in Israel, which means we have a poorly insulated house and not-so-efficient heaters. And it's raining - a good thing! In other words, sometimes it's colder inside our house than out, and I'm too frugal to heat the place all the time!)

So here's what we'll be eating (it's a vegan menu!):

Vegetable-Noodle Soup
Sloppy "Sams" in pitot
Steamed Cauliflower and Broccoli
Oven-crisp Roasted Potato Wedges
I rarely do dessert during the week, but maybe I'll even bake muffins! I have a few wrinkly apples to use up.

Some notes about these foods:

The soup is the same one from Friday night. I keep all my Shabbat soups pareve, so I can use them again during the beginning of the week.

Sloppy Sams are Vegetarian Sloppy Joes. I'm making these with drained and crumbled tofu (I buy these at Kimat Chinam; if you buy 3 tofu cubes at a time, they are 3/23.99 NIS. Does anyone have a better deal to share?), browned in olive oil with diced onion and peppers, cooked with tomato paste, water, and spices. We still haven't worked out the perfect combination of Sloppy Sam spices, so if you have any TNT recipes, please share!

Cauliflower and Broccoli - the cauliflower was on sale for 1 NIS/kilo, so we'll be going heavy on the cauliflower, light on the brocolli. The best price I found for broccoli was 8 NIS/kilo at Yesh. Kimat Chinam was 14 NIS/kilo and Rami Levy something like 17 NIS/kilo. My kids love broccoli, so I figured I would have to continue to buy it and stretch it with the cauliflower...

For the Potato Wedges, I usually combine olive oil, mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix well with potato wedges (just scrub and cut - leave those peels on so you get the vitamins and trace minerals!), and bake in the oven at 400 F till crispy and turning brown. The kids like to eat them with ketchup...